In recent years, portable terminals are in trend of the sudden spread of use because of the convenience of carrying. Accordingly, service providers (i.e., system manufacturers) are competitively developing portable terminals having more convenient functions to guarantee many users.
For example, the portable terminals are providing functions of phone books, games, schedulers, Short Message Services (SMSs), Multimedia Message Services (MMS), Broadcast Message Services (BMSs), Internet services, electronic mail (e-mail) messages, morning wakeup calls, MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (MP3), digital cameras, etc.
As a function of the portable terminal gets diversified and complicated, a use method thereof gets complicated too. So, users require more intuitive interface capable of using the diversified and complicated function of this digital device simply and conveniently.
Further, with the miniaturization and mobility of the portable terminals, the frequency of outdoor use of the portable terminals is increasing. This results from the growth of wireless communication functions of the portable terminals. That a user provides data stored in the portable terminal to an inter-workable peripheral device often occurs.
This means that the user intends to have the inter-workable peripheral device play the data of the portable terminal. The portable terminal transmits image data being playing to a peripheral device, which exists around, such as a TeleVision (TV), a Personal Computer (PC) and the like, so that the peripheral device can continuously play the image data.
As know in the art, to perform the above function, the portable terminal performs a process of selecting contents intended to play from a list of contents and then, searching for peripheral devices. After that, the portable terminal has to perform a process of selecting a peripheral device intending to play the selected contents from a list of the searched peripheral devices.
That is, the portable terminal performs a process of selecting contents intended to play and a target peripheral device from a list of contents and a list of peripheral devices, respectively. But, there can be troubles in selecting a peripheral device wanted by a user.
Accordingly, to provide a solution to the above problem, an apparatus and method for quickly and conveniently selecting a peripheral device for contents playing in a portable terminal are needed.